Starting out

[hll79]

I have been making necklaces and bracelets for about  a year now just for fun. I give them to my daughters teacher, ladies at church and relatives. I have always been told that I can make a killing selling them and have always had good compliments about them.

I want to start selling them on a website, but don't want to spend too much getting started.

Are there any suggestions, dos and don'ts for selling online. Also, can anyone give me a good site that is free or doesn't charge much to have a website. I have never made one so I don't know a thing.

Any and all advice and suggestions will be deeply appreciated.

[Luann Udell]

There's a wonderful new on-line forum called "The Switchboards" here:  The Switchboards Forum  

It's full of advice, tips and anecdotes from a large group of people who mostly sell on-line.  I highly recommend it!  A sharing, caring group of people with lots of info for you.

Luann

[AvalonJewel]

I second the kuddos on The Switchboards!  I am a frequent poster at that forum, and it is one of the absolute best for building a home-based business.  Those ladies know everything and they are always there to help with any question you may have!

As far as building a website, I built my own very first website (which is the one I have now) using Sitebuilder, a free downloaded software program from Yahoo.  It's super easy to use, requires no html knowledge, and had a bunch of premade templates if you want to use them.  There are other WYSIWYG programs out there, too, like Microsoft Frontpage, Adobe GoLive, and NetFusion.  For more experienced users, there's Dreamweaver.

For hosting, I use Yahoo's starter pack.  It's $11.95 a month, and comes with a free domain name.  In the included file manager, there is a pretty good tracking system, which tracks how many page views you had, where they came from, etc.  There are tons of site-hosts out there, some free, some costing a few bucks.  Just be careful if you decide to go with a free one, that it doesn't have a zillion pop-ups coming up on your site all the time.  That can be very annoying for customers.

For building a jewelry business online, try Jewelry Making Headquarters for tons of articles on making a successful website, building your business, site promotion and SEO, and general jewelry making topics.  There is also a forum.

Having a website is a ton of work.  There is constant promotion, updating, revising, etc.  It can months before you see any significant traffic and steady visitors.  It can be very frustrating at times!  But, it can also be so very rewarding and fun!  Good luck!

~~Stephanie
Avalon Jewelry
www.avalonjewels.com

[Luann Udell]

If I may update my information, the Switchboards is still a wealth of information for online selling.

But the simplest way to set up an online store may be simply signing on with a site like Etsy.  There are no major fees, the templates are easy to use, and you can take PayPal payments, which most online buyers are comfortable with.  As with Switchboards, there are many forums on Etsy and FAQs to guide you through set-up, photographing your work, marketing, tagging, etc.

My best advice would be, don't try to market to random Etsy visitors, but DO use the site to sell to your current customers and prospects.